So you're either liars or idiots
by LadyVukavo
Summary: Professor Snape and a few other slytherins were half-bloods who survived in the pureblood, muggle hating slytherin house. Even joined Voldemort's cause. What if there's a reason why they do that? More so, what if a muggleborn enters slytherin and proves that, just as blind as the other houses are of this truth about slytherin, slytherin is blind to the truth about Potter? HP AU


Author's Note: I know that Mark Evans is really a muggle boy and is too young to be a hogwarts student during Harry's fourth year, but this is A/U and I like the stories I have come across where the Mark Evans mentioned in Order of the Phoenix is a wizard, but according to PotterWiki he was born in 96 so he would only come in Harry's sixth or seventh year, making it much more difficult for this to come about. I do not plan on finishing this story at all, it is an idea that popped in my head and would not go away and I know it could even now be written better but can't think how it could be. If this story gets more chapters, it would simply be different variations to similar conversation as I had a similar one to this also play out but where Mark goes home for Christmas and Draco and his parents are concerned and about to confront his family only to overhear things instead of the way it plays out here…

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, I'm just playing with the story. The description of slytherin common room is taken from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

 **So you're either liars or idiots.**

They walked through an archway and down stairs, leading into the dungeons of the castle, their footsteps echoing loudly as they walked through a labyrinth of passages, walking deeper and deeper under the school.

It was about fifteen minutes before the prefect leading them paused by a stretch of bare damp stone wall.

"This, here, is the entrance to the common room. I hope, yet highly doubt, you were all cunning enough to have noticed that the torches along the walls, upon entrance to the dungeons, were designed to look like a snake coiling around the torches. More importantly, the head of the snakes were pointing in the same directions we were walking? They lead, first, to the potions classroom, once you pass that, they lead to Professor Snape's office, after that they lead to here. Should you look at the torch in opposite me, you will notice the face points to this stretch of wall. The next torch we would have passed, had we kept going, would lead the way back to the stairwell out of the dungeons. It's all one large circle really and should you turn off the main path, the snakes will still be facing one direction or another, but they would also have a tail that points the way towards hidden passageways, rooms, offices, stairwells or other things that can be found down here." The perfect explained.

He then turned to face the wall, spoke a clear and concise "Baneberry" and a stone door concealed in the wall slid open.

Mark followed along with the rest of the first years, looking around in curiosity, as everyone filed in through the door. After the last female perfect, who had been following them at the back, entered, the door closed and the first years shuffled nervously in place while trying to hide their discomfort and curiosity.

The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, greenish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an elaborately carved mantlepiece ahead of them, and several slytherins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs.

The door behind them opened once more and the first years pushed forward a bit more and turned around to look upon Professor Snape, just as everyone else did.

"I wish to welcome you all to Slytherin house. First order of business, I want all first year muggleborn and muggle raised students to step forward." Snape spoke quietly, yet Mark had no doubt everybody could hear.

Mark, another first year boy and two first year girls stepped forward nervously.

"You may have heard the whispers and claims of Slytherin house being the evil house, the house of blood purists and only for those of pure blood. It is a misconception we have never broken as the truth is one very few muggleborn and raised slytherins want to get out. The truth, that the muggleborn and muggle-raised students in Slytherin house, come from abusive homes and backgrounds. This is nothing to be ashamed of, but understandably something nobody wants to have be automatically perceived as public knowledge simply because of where you were sorted."

Mark listened, curiosity and confusion coursing through him at the hint he would want his blood status kept hidden. When he heard the bit about how he was from an abusive home, simply because he was a muggleborn in slytherin, he grew angry and failed to notice the others beside him tense in fear and nervousness.

"There is nothing to be ashamed of, and we will do all we can do to protect you from your family. I do not expect you to come to me immediately, I know I must earn your trust. Nobody will pity you in this house, they will treat you no differently than any other housemate. But we are here to listen and keep you safe and be a willing ear should you wish to talk. I will warn you now to beware the gryffindors. They are rash, brutish, mannerless, tactless and more often than not, they are bullies. They despise slytherin more than the others and will instantly target you, refusing to acknowledge you as muggleborn or raised and lump you with the other evil purebloods. No matter how friendly they may have been if you met them before now, be prepared for them to be your enemy now. The moment you were sorted into this house, they saw you as an enemy and will not see anything else."

"You're a liar."

Everyone went deathly still as Professor Snape looked to Mark, frowning down at Mark's stubborn and accusatory eyes.

"I am afraid, Mr. Evans, that while I am an epitome slytherin who misleads, misdirects, distracts, hides or purposefully causes one to misinterpret my words, I do not lie."

"Potter is a gryffindor and he'll remember I'm a muggleborn and be friendly with me, even protective. More importantly than that though, I am not abused. My mother and father love me and care for me. Yet I am the slytherin and Potter the gryffindor. You, sir, are a liar."

Mark turned and glared behind him when he heard a derisive snort.

"Potter is the epitome of gryffindor and will see you as nothing but a slimy evil little snake like the rest of us." A pale, blond haired, pointy chinned teenage boy stated as he stepped forwards, sneering at Mark. "Sorry to disappoint you but he isn't the all powerful hero you've heard about since coming to the wizarding world."

"I know that Malfoy, anyone who expects him to be an all powerful, all knowing wizarding hero is an idiot. I also don't expect him to be my friend since I'm younger than him. But I also know that he won't see me as evil and that not all muggleborn and raised students from abusive households end up in slytherin." Mark replied cooly, a look of pure hatred in his eyes as he looked at Malfoy.

"Professor Snape never said all of them go to slytherin, just that all those in slytherin come from there. Hufflepuff and ravenclaw get a some occasionally too, but most of them wind up in slytherin as they learn to be sneaky growing up in their households, as it's the best way for them to survive sweetheart, just as you undoubtedly did." Another girl stepped forward, this one also a blond about Malfoy's age.

"I am not abused and I didn't learn how to sneak around from growing up in my house." Mark began before being cut off by Malfoy.

"Then where did you learn to be sneaky, as you as good as admitted that that is what got you into slytherin just now."

Mark opened his mouth, about ready to tell them exactly where he learned to sneak around, before a thought hit him and he looked at Malfoy speculatively.

"You talk like you know Potter well. I also heard you talking to him on the train when I was looking for a compartment. You know him personally?"

Malfoy looked resigned, as if he knew the reason Mark had changed the subject suddenly.

"Course I know him, he's in my year. I met him in Madam Malkin's before school, then again on the train ride here before first year. He turned me down for the Weasel. That's not what we're talking about though, we're talking about you and abuse." Malfoy stated, the ending statement telling mark why he wasn't surprised by the change of subject.

"So you met Potter twice before coming to Hogwarts and therefore before the sorting and your name starts with M, so you were sorted into slytherin before him." Mark began, a grin on his face and a look of satisfaction in his eyes. "What did you two talk about in Malkin's?"

"I talked about Hogwarts, how I couldn't wait to get there, how it was a shame we couldn't play quidditch in first year and I was gonna talk my dad into getting me a broom anyways. Then that oaf Hagrid banged on the window to the shop and Potter admitted he was taking him shopping since Potter's parents were dead and so couldn't do it. I asked if they were our kind and he admitted they were a witch and wizard before he was finished with his fitting and left." Malfoy explained, a look of confusion on his face that only grew as the look of satisfaction grew in Mark's face.

"Keep in mind, I already said I heard you talking with him on the train. Bet you made fun of Hagrid before you found out he was with Harry. And on the train, you said he chose Weasel over you, I bet he had been sitting with Weasel before you came across him and said some disparaging remark about him before offering for Potter to leave him and join you, probably tried to make yourself seem like the much better option and all that yeah?" Mark asked, a tone of I know something you don't in his voice.

Malfoy nodded slowly, determinedly not looking at Professor Snape since he remembered retelling the story differently to him. He wasn't about to lie though, as he was becoming quite curious as to how Evans had figured that out and where he was going with this.

Mark turned to the older students.

"Anybody recall Potter's sorting? Was it long like mine?" He asked and nodded knowingly when a lot of them nodded in confirmation.

"The long sortings are probably often because there are either multiple options of where you can go, you are arguing with the hat's' decision or both. Potter talked to me briefly about the sorting and admitted that he had been told he could fit in any of them though two stood out more strongly than the others and he argued with the hat. He wouldn't admit what the other choice was, but he doesn't have to, I already know." Mark explained.

"He's gonna kill me for this, but I'll be damned if Hogwart's continues being the wizarding version of Little Whinging I can already see it as now, how he has to hide who he truly is simply because people expect him to be a certain and either ignore or take it out on him if he's different. I'm sneaky, I'll admit that's what caused the Hat to consider slytherin and I'm stupidly brave enough to do what I shouldn't to have been considered for Gryffindor. I remembered Potter's comment about wondering what it would have been like if he let the hat put him where it wanted instead of argue and so I figured it best not to argue and was put in slytherin. My sneakiness though, is not self taught and was not needed to survive my home. It was taught by Potter so I, and all the other neighborhood kids, had a better chance of surviving his bully of a cousin and gang. A bully of a cousin who picks on those who are friends with Potter, a bully who looks down on those who don't have what he has, a bully of a cousin that taunts Potter and others and that you distinctly reminded me of as I heard you taunting Weasley and Potter on the train ride here earlier today because they didn't know what was about to happen at Hogwarts this year and how Weasley's dad obviously wasn't even remotely important enough to know. I have no doubt that Potter saw the resemblance too. And when you were sorted into slytherin, he was determined not to be stuck in the same dorm as a wizarding version of his bully of a cousin and so argued with the hat until it chose gryffindor. In getting sorted into gryffindor, he was seen by you snakes as an arrogant, bullying little idiot who hates you all despite the fact I bet he only argues with the slytherins who start stuff with him. Anyone gonna truthfully say Potter ever started any arguments? Potter, not Weasley or any other gryffindors or friends he might show protectiveness over, but that he himself started?" Mark paused for a minute and failed to notice the deepening frown on Snape's face as he realized not a single person who claimed Potter started the fights was saying anything. "Add in the fact everyone else sees Gryffindor as the house of the brave and heros, the house his parents were in, they automatically assumed he's just what they were told, the boy-who-lived, the savior, the perfect son of James and Lily Potter and destined to follow in their footsteps. Professor McGonagall, when asked by my dad, admitted how disappointed she was he does so poorly in school, simply because he doesn't shine above the rest of his yearmates but that he's constantly in some trouble or another just like his prankster of a father. She expects him to be powerful and knowledgeable of how magic works, forgetting he's muggle raised, expects him to know and emulate his parents when he grew up believing the were a whore and a jobless man living on the dole who died in a car crash when they were stupid enough to drive drunk. She admittedly he doesn't get into trouble anywhere near as bad as his dad, told us about how he concocted some story of a dragon first year to get Malfoy in trouble and thought it hilarious Longbottom got busted too, just like his father and so she put him in his place and that's the reason he knows not to try stuff like his father but I asked him and than Hagrid and they both admitted the dragon was very real but since she thought he was just like his father she treated him as if he was a long time troublemaker to discourage things further. He warned me Snape is a bully who attacked him first day of potions for no apparent reason, destroying any hope he had of potions being his favorite class, only to find out at the end of the year it's because he hated his father. I will reiterate, I am not from an abusive home yet I am a muggleborn in slytherin and Harry Potter is a gryffindor who is an abused child in gryffindor who will not hate me now I'm in slytherin. So either you are liars or idiots. Now I am tired and have to be up early to warn Potter I gave all this information away, so I need sleep, where is my bed?"

All was quiet for a few minutes, some staring at him in surprise, some in contemplation. One of the older students eventually waved him over and led the way as he and the other first years followed, the girls splitting off when told to. It was a quiet night and Mark was both dreading and anticipating the morning. Dreading Harry's undoubted anger at him for what he just told and anticipation at the fact that someone would do something to help Harry.


End file.
